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Constitutional AI Governance Framework - Grounded in Socratic Philosophy

Project description

Socratic Morality

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Constitutional AI Governance Framework - Building trustworthy, accountable multi-agent systems grounded in Socratic philosophy.

"It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it." — Plato's Gorgias

Quick Start

pip install socratic-morality
from socratic_morality import Governor

governor = Governor(constitution="constitution.yaml", llm_provider="anthropic")
decision = await governor.evaluate(
    action="Access user's private data",
    purpose="Personalization",
    actor="recommendation_agent",
    context={"user_id": "user_123"}
)

Documentation

Complete Module Architecture (7 Modules)

Phase 1 - Foundation (3 modules)

  1. Governor - Core decision-making engine

    • Constraint checking and validation
    • Decision tracking with audit trails
    • Multi-dimensional decision analysis
  2. Constitution Framework - YAML-based governance

    • Supreme principles and axioms
    • Named principles with severity levels
    • Agent capabilities and permissions
    • Action policies and constraints
    • Escalation rules and approval workflows
  3. CapabilityToken System - Fine-grained access control

    • Token-based permissions
    • Resource authorization
    • Capability validation
    • Storage backends (SQLite, PostgreSQL)

Phase 2 - Ethical Reasoning (3 modules)

  1. Multi-Framework Ethical Analysis

    • Kantian deontological analysis (duty, dignity, universality)
    • Utilitarian consequentialist analysis (benefit/harm, extremes)
    • Virtue ethics analysis (virtues, vices, flourishing)
    • Rights-based analysis (fundamental rights, consent)
    • LLM integration with keyword analysis fallback
  2. Moral Precedent Engine - Case-based reasoning

    • Decision storage and retrieval
    • Similarity-based matching
    • Consistency analysis
    • Precedent clustering and history
  3. Explanation Generation - Transparent reasoning

    • Reasoning artifact export
    • Decision justification
    • Explanation reports
    • Framework analysis summaries

Phase 3 - Advanced Governance (4 modules - NEW ✨)

  1. Constitutional Enforcer - Active principle enforcement

    • Real-time principle verification
    • Principle violation detection with severity levels
    • Agent capability validation
    • Constitutional reasoning generation
  2. Unified Governance API - Single entry point for all decisions

    • evaluate(action, context, actor) - Main interface
    • Constitutional checks (first gate)
    • Integrated ethical deliberation (4 frameworks)
    • Precedent analysis with semantic similarity
    • Threat detection and anomaly analysis
    • Optional interactive Socratic dialogue
    • Complete decision history and explanation reports
    • Batch evaluation support
  3. Socratic Dialogue Engine - Interactive ethical reasoning

    • 8 Socratic approaches (exposing contradictions, testing universality, examining assumptions, probing consequences, inviting counterarguments, clarifying definitions)
    • 7 question categories (stakeholder, consequence, principle, alternative, assumption, vulnerability, outcome)
    • 40+ built-in Socratic questions
    • Interactive dialogue with Claude LLM
    • Dialogue synthesis and insight extraction
    • Dialogue history tracking
  4. Semantic Precedent Matching - Advanced similarity search

    • Sentence-transformer embeddings (semantic matching)
    • Combined lexical + semantic similarity (40/60 blend)
    • Embedding caching for performance
    • Precedent clustering by conclusion type
    • Context-aware relevance scoring

Phase 3 Extensions (3 modules - NEW ✨)

  1. Care Ethics Framework - Relational moral analysis

    • Relationship mapping and analysis
    • Vulnerability assessment
    • Care response adequacy evaluation
    • Care violation detection
    • Emphasis on interdependence and caring
  2. Remediation Engine - Constraint violation handling

    • 5 remediation strategies:
      • MODIFY_ACTION: Adjust action parameters
      • ADD_SAFEGUARDS: Add protective measures
      • REJECT_AND_PROPOSE_ALTERNATIVE: Suggest better approach
      • ESCALATE_WITH_CONSTRAINTS: Allow with restrictions
      • ROLLBACK: Reverse decisions
    • Intelligent suggestion generation
    • Auto-remediation for safe violations
    • Decision rollback capability
    • Complete audit trail
  3. Resource Monitor - Real-time resource enforcement

    • CPU, memory, file descriptor, process monitoring
    • Soft and hard limit enforcement
    • Violation detection and escalation
    • Comprehensive usage reporting
    • Session-based monitoring lifecycle
    • Integration with sandbox execution

Release Status

v0.0.5 - COMPLETE ✅ (May 2026)

All 13 modules fully implemented, tested, and documented:

  • Phase 1: 3 foundation modules ✅
  • Phase 2: 3 ethical reasoning modules ✅
  • Phase 3: 4 advanced governance modules ✅
  • Phase 3 Extensions: 3 specialized modules ✅

Available on PyPI:

pip install socratic-morality==0.0.5

Test Coverage: 100% (71/71 tests passing) Code Quality: All linting and type checks passing Documentation: Complete API docs and examples included

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details


Part of Socrates AI Ecosystem

This package is a component of Socrates AI, a production-ready platform for building intelligent multi-agent systems with constitutional governance.

Use This Package Standalone:

pip install socratic-morality

Or As Part of Socrates Platform:

pip install socrates-ai  # Includes 37+ modules + all 11 packages

Integration Example:

See the Socrates ECOSYSTEM.md for detailed integration examples showing how to use socratic-morality with other Socratic packages.

Related packages you might use together:

More Information:


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